WASHINGTON – The war against Osama bin Laden’s terror empire took a big step forward yesterday as the Pentagon reported that two senior al Qaeda leaders were captured and two others were killed recently in eastern Afghanistan.
As commandos launched a cave-by-cave search of the Zawar Kili al-Badr camp and forensic teams tried to identify the bodies, U.S. officials identified the dead al Qaeda leaders as:
* Abu Hafs, the Mauritanian who was a key planner of terrorist operations including the aborted millennium plot to attack Los Angeles airport and tourist spots in Jordan.
* Abu Jafar al-Jaziri, a logistics coordinator.
Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, refused to identify the captured leaders, but said they were part of a group of 14 al Qaeda terrorists taken prisoner early this week.
He said there are now a total of 364 detainees in U.S. custody, including the Taliban’s ambassador to Pakistan, Abdul Salam Zaewef, who is being interrogated at Bagram Air Base, and Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, a major terrorist instructor, who is aboard the USS Battan.
The latest progress in bringing those responsible for the Sept. 11 atrocities to justice came as the result of airstrikes and commando raids in the areas of Khost and Zawar Kili, where hundreds of al Qaeda fighters were regrouping.
The fortress, a long line of caves in the cliffs, has been destroyed, and U.S. officials told The Post hundreds of al Qaeda fighters were killed in the airstrikes.
U.S. troops also captured laptop computers, discs and cellular phones in what was described as an intelligence bonanza that enabled the tracking of al Qaeda cells overseas, Pentagon officials said.
The recent arrest of 15 al Qaeda operatives plotting to blow up the U.S. Embassy in Singapore was the result of intelligence obtained by U.S. military authorities in Afghanistan, administration officials said.
Myers said officials were checking on reports that other top Taliban leaders have surrendered, adding that “individuals of that stature in the Taliban leadership are of great interests to the U.S., and we would expect them to be turned over.”
U.S.-backed Afghan fighters claimed that three Taliban ministers surrendered yesterday.
Among them was Justice Minister Mullah Nuruddin Turabi, notorious for his enforcement of Taliban law that banned women from working or going to school.
Taliban Defense Minister Mullah Ubai Dullah and Industry Minister Mullah Saadudin also reportedly surrendered.
But despite U.S. demands that senior Taliban leaders be turned over to American forces, Khalid Pashtoon, spokesman for Kandahar governor Gul Agha, said the ministers were granted amnesty and freed.